Qatari has said it is applying for a license under China's Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) and aims for an investment quota of US$5 billion in China's capital market, according to a senior Qatari official.

Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, minister of energy and industry of Qatar, said during his visit to Beijing that by applying for the QFII status, Qatar plans to invest part of its revenues generated from transferring gas to China in Chinese shares and IPOs.

Qatar is a major supplier of liquefied natural gas(LNG) to China. It transported  5 million tonnes of LNG to China annually.

Sada said the decision, which has received positive support from China, is out of recognition of the strength and prospect of the Chinese economy.

He said the current disappointing performance in China's A-share market will be short-lived and Qatar is eyeing China's long-term growth potential for strategic investments.

Launched in 2002, QFII is one of the few channels for overseas investors to trade in the A-share market within given quotas. The quota that Qatar proposed far exceeded the current cap of 1 billion U.S. dollars.

With an increasing number of foreign investors showing interest in China's A-share market, China's regulator had quickened its pace to further open its capital market.

China's securities regulator, China Securities Regulatory Commission cut the asset requirements for foreign institutions wanting to invest in its stock markets and allowed the QFIIs to hold up to a 30-percent stake in a listed company earlier this month.

The commission has also quickened QFII approvals recently to facilitate foreign investors who held long-term investment plans.

Foreign investment under the QFII program accounts for 1.1 percent of the total market value of domestic A-shares.

Xinhua News Agency contributed to this story.
 

Source:china.org